The Story of Steve Austin's WWE Walkout

[Music] [Music] my [Music] taking give me a hell 2002 was a pretty bad year for stone cold steve austin the invasion storyline had wrapped up and stone cold run as a bad guy hadn't been as successful as austin hoped steve austin also failed to win the 2002 royal rumble and he failed to win the undisputed title at the nowhere pay-per-view stone cold then refused a big money match with hulk hogan at wrestlemania and along with all of this there were lingering neck issues that were causing problems away from the ring steve was having mortal issues and steve himself said that he was living way too fast during this time period in short stone cold was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode health problems professional problems personal problems it seemed like one thing after another for the texas rattlesnake and something would have to give in the end austin decided to quit the wrestling business and for fans watching on tv it was a massive surprise that no one saw coming today's video will look at steve austin's walkout in 2002 it was austin's decision to turn hale in 2001. steve felt that the stone cold character was turning stale and stone cold needed a shot in the arm even though many fans would disagree after turning hail at wrestlemania 17 stone cold would briefly turn babyface and the run-up to the invasion pay-per-view before once again turning to the dark side to lead the alliance against the wwf some fans loved it others didn't but generally speaking i think most people would agree that the heel turn wasn't really necessary stone cold steve austin was still a massive box office draw once the invasion storyline had wrapped up stone cold reverted back to her baby face and steve austin would enter the 2002 royal rumble in hopes of headlining wrestlemania 18. the royal rumble match in 2002 though was all about the game triple h had made his wwf return after being on the shelf for around eight months and triple h was the favorite to win the rumble and headline wrestlemania this is exactly what happened stone cold steve austin would not be reinventing wrestlemania 18 austin did get a titan shot at nowhere 2002 just before wrestlemania but austin failed to capture the championship rumors about steve austin being unhappy with the wwf signing the new world order have been greatly exaggerated over the years and stone cold has even gone on record to say he had no problems at all with the new world order coming into the wwf austin was and still is very good friends with kevin nash and although he didn't have a personal relationship with scott hall or hulk hogan steve austin didn't really have a problem with all three men coming into his place of work as long as the nwo were prepared to do business what steve austin wasn't keen on however was working a wrestlemania match with hulk hogan we'll never know the true details of the planned austin versus hogan wrestlemania 18 bout but stone cold refused the match and the public reasons that have been given are pretty simple steve austin felt that he and hogan couldn't have a great wrestlemania match jim ross said austin was never about having good matches austin was about having great matches he knew better than anyone else in the world who he could work the best with hogan wasn't on that list it didn't happen because steve didn't push for it steve austin said physically and mentally where i was at i could go i think hogan probably would have been a steparty behind that that wasn't acceptable to me and i didn't want to slow myself down i say that with all due respect to hulk hogan because he had a hellacious run that was my thought process back in the day i didn't think we could deliver there's also reports of the two men being unwilling to lose the match but really it doesn't matter now hulk hogan would end up facing the rock at wrestlemania 18 and as mentioned earlier royal rumble winner triple h would face chris jericho for the undisputed championship after turning down the hogan match austin was left without a wrestlemania opponent so the decision was made to put scott hall in the ring with the texas rattlesnake due to the magnitude of hogan vs rock and due to the significance of having an undisputed title match being held at wrestlemania steve austin's match with scott hall wouldn't get the high billing that austin was used to and stone cold wasn't happy at all with his place on the card scott hall as talented as he was was also in a bad place personally during early 2002 and steve austin didn't have any kind of relationship with hull that would translate into a show-stealing performance at wrestlemania scott hall said outside the ring steve was going through really bad times and he told me later he was going through what ended up being a divorce from his wife at the time deborah and for me the only thing i had to look forward to was the ring because my personal life wasn't doing that great so my fake life was what i was holding on to my real life wasn't doing that good so the stuff in the ring wasn't that pleasing those weren't my best matches or steve's either we get along and communicate a lot better now than when we were wrestling austin didn't have a personal issue with scott hall he had an issue with how the match was thrown together out of nowhere steve said that the wrestlemania 18 match would be a disservice to both steve and scott's fans but the card was set and austin really had no other choice but to go ahead with it about more problems came up when the finish was discussed among creative the initial plan was to have scott win the match jim ross approached vince mcmahon to protest this decision and word somehow got back the stone cold that the planned finish would see austin getting pinned in the middle of the ring scott hall went out drinking the night before wrestlemania and when stone cold noticed the state hall was in austin went straight to vince's office to demand the match finish got changed mcmahon pretended to acquiesce with stone cold's wishes even though vince had changed the outcome before wrestlemania 18 steve was already booked to win the match hall and austin went out at wrestlemania then and the match wasn't bad it wasn't a show stealer by any means but if hall was as hungover as what's been reported then he actually done pretty well here all things considered i don't think hall gets enough credit for his selling of the stone cold stunner either stone cold won the match but he was still extremely unhappy he wasn't just upset with the creative aspects of his character he was slowly becoming enraged with how things were developing hulk hogan and the rock had a once in a lifetime match on the same show that still talked about to this very day and a match that stone cold could have been a part of but austin instead had a frustrating wrestlemania he didn't like the build-up he didn't like the proposed outcome he was angry at scott hall and all of this resulted in steve no showing the raw after wrestlemania out of protest not only did steve austin no-show the raw after wrestlemania attained but he went home for a whole week missing a few live shows in the process vince mcmahon publicly stated that austin's actions caused anger among fans who paid to see him but austin came back for the april 1st 2002 episode of raw the first raw of the new brand extension era of the wwf this show was centered all around stone cold ric flair and vince mcmahon would attempt to sign austin to their respective brand but in the end austin decided to go with monday night raw what's notable here is that the final segment that featured stone cold steve austin drew the biggest number of the evening proving that steve austin was still a huge draw at the time stone cold was immediately placed back in the main event picture rock and hogan had moved his smackdown so there was a little room here for austin to go back into the spot where he rightfully belonged a rivalry with the undertaker began both men wanted to become the number one contender for the undisputed championship and so a match was booked at backlash featuring the american badass taking on the texas rattlesnake austin lost the match special referee ric flair counted austin's shoulders to the mat even though stone cold had a foot on the rope and in the main event of the evening hulk hogan defeated triple h to become the undisputed champion at the judgment day pay-per-view held in may of 2002 austin defeated the big show and ric flair in a handicapped match the story going into this one was about how the big show betrayed steve austin by joining the nwo and ric flair but even on paper austin vs big show and ric flair sounds like a match that was drawn out of a hat jim ross talked about this recently on his podcast and ross said that a big problem around this time period was that there were no viable opponents for stone cold steve austin but i don't necessarily agree with this statement the 2002 roster was absolutely stacked i think a bigger problem was the wwe's inability to lay out a decent story that would lead to conflict between austin and a worthy opponent immediately after the brand split the main story centered around the undisputed championship and how both brands wanted their respective superstar to hold the title and after the backlash match with the undertaker steve austin was pretty much written out of the angle the main focus was put on hulk hogan triple h and the undertaker following judgement day eddie guerrero would begin a rivalry with austin that would also involve ric flair and chris benoit but stone cold was not happy at all with how this was all turning out and steve went on to the wwf's bite this program where he publicly destroyed the wwf's creative team on the bike this program that went out to the public on the 31st of may 2002 steve austin was asked about his current mindset in regards to how things were going within the wwe austin said the bottom line is everything sucks i'm not happy with the direction stone cold steve austin is going and i'm not happy about the whole direction the company is going i think the writing has been substandard i'll go one better and say the writing has been piss poor as a matter of fact i haven't been happy with what i've been doing since before wrestlemania i'm still happy to be with the world wrestling federation i love my job but the bottom line is creative could be a hell of a lot better than what it is vince mcmahon appeared on the next episode of bike this and vince tried to remain neutral mcmahon said that's stone cold who i've already said is the most demanding of anyone i've ever worked with sometimes rightfully so at the same time he's been reduced to simply producing gold albums as opposed to platinum ones at the moment whether or not if someone gets sore on creative and can he take that and turn it into something better i think he can i think austin does have that ability at the same time he needs some decent material to work with too so it's a combination of things again this goes back to what i was saying about creative having all the necessary tools but having no idea about how to use them ric flair versus steve austin chris benoit versus steve austin eddie guerrero versus steve austin that's three potential marquee matches that could have headlined any big pay-per-view but without the correct build without proper time and without something truly meaningful that would make fans tune in every week it really doesn't lead to anything eventually those planned marquee matches become throwaway bouts that get placed in the middle of the card this doesn't get austin off the hook either by the way refusing to compete in matches and complaining about his character didn't do stone cold any favors and really what vince mcmahon said on bike this was probably right it was a combination of austin's temperament and a lack of good creative that made things reach a boiling point something is for certain though austin was not in the middle of the pay-per-views not at the end and there's a very good argument to be made in regards to hulk hogan coming in and getting pushed to the top while austin and away got pushed down just look at wrestlemania backlash and judgement day on the june 3rd episode of monday night raw steve austin took on ric flair in the main event whoever lost the match would become the winner's personal assistant and stone cold won the match the next week austin was booked into a king of the ring qualifying match with brock lesnar a match that austin was scheduled to lose because of the whole guerrero benoit and flair rivalry that was just getting started it's pretty safe to say that the finish to the lesnar vs austin match wouldn't have been claimed there would have been some sort of involvement from austin's main rivals at the time but still austin refused to do the honours not only did steve austin refuse to do the job but he went home austin had reached that boiling point we talked about earlier and he walked out of the wwe austin has said that a combination of bad creative personal issues too much drinking and nagging injuries caused him to board a plane and leave the territory vince mcmahon said he got a call from jim ross at around 10 pm the night before raw ross told vince that steve austin wasn't very excited about the planned creative for monday night raw austin wanted the finish to his match with brock lesnar changed vince tried to call austin but he went straight to voicemail austin called mcmahon back at 2 in the morning and vince went through the entire creative process with stone cold why the match was happening why austin was going to lose the brock lesnar and how this would all benefit the company vince said that austin agreed and vince thought he had sweared stone cold into doing the job on monday night raw jim ross got to the arena and he found out that austin had booked flights to go back home both austin and debra had used the wwf's travel booking system to get their seats on the plane ross got through to austin on the phone just as stone cold was boarding the plane and ross said he had a very frank conversation with austin in regards to walking off the job austin talked about the planned king of the ring qualifying match on his excellent dvd documentary and stone cold said jim ross said that vince would like to see brock lesnar go over on me in a king of the ring qualifier match i said really you guys want to beat me in a qualifying match unannounced you're not going to do one two or three week build for this match to get a number out of it man i don't have a big head but guys like me are pretty hard to find that didn't make business sense to me i'll do business with anybody getting beat don't mean a thing to me when it's right and if it's right i told jim if that's going to be creative then i won't be at monday night raw austin did confirm that vince called him and when he was told about the creative plans for raw austin just said really before hanging up the phone so while vince thought that steve was in agreement stone cold had already made his mind up that he wasn't going to perform on the 10th of june 2002. austin elaborated a little more during a recent interview when he said it wasn't time for me to do the favors yet for brock in an unadvertised match on a tournament style tv match i love brock lesnar i'd lose to him any day of the week but build it up so we can all make money off it and it's going to mean something you get guys who really really draws stupid money it's a very delicate balance that you just don't take stupid liberties with or you'll kill it off and you can never recreate it so how did vince mcmahon in the world wrestling federation deal with this on tv after all stone cold was one of their most popular superstars and fans had bought tickets to see stone cold in action on the 10th of june 2002 well the wwf didn't shy away from telling the truth ric flair austin's k-famed personal assistant came out of the ring and he announced that steve austin had not shown up for work vince mcmahon interrupted the nature boy and mcmahon confirmed that austin was not in the building the show continued on though and mcmahon defeated flair in the main event to gain full ownership of the wwe later that week all would be revealed in the wwe's confidential program jim ross and vince mcmahon spoke extensively about steve austin's walkout and they pretty much gave the exact same information that i've given you in this upload they didn't shy away from the facts it was all very real vince mcmahon talked about how austin took his ball and went home while jim ross reiterated the fact that a wwe performer should never walk out of a show that people have paid to see vince mcmahon backed this up saying that walking off the job is the unpardonable sin of the wwe vince also said from a personal standpoint and from a business standpoint i look in the mirror firstly when things like this happen and say what could i have done to change this what could i have done to make this not happen i don't know the answer i'll accept whatever blame i can put on myself in terms of lack of communication or whatever but when someone won't speak to you and when someone won't come to work to discuss how to get out of something my hands are tied down whatever disagreements he and i had we always sat down and we always worked it out we've always saw each other's point of view but when someone refuses to show up they've screwed you the point mcmahon and ross were trying to put over here is that stone cold took himself out of the game he refused to come to work he refused to settle whatever differences he had with the company and stone cold had basically screwed himself and he screwed the fans kind of remind you of the bread screwed brad stuff we won't linger on the creative differences anymore but in terms of the plans that mcmahon told austin on the phone we only have information that was provided by bruce prichard on his podcast pritchard said that lesnar versus austin would get revisited down the line the original plan was for brock to bait austin and the king of the ring qualifier have austin go off and finish up working with eddie guerrero and then a big money rematch would get booked between stone cold steve austin and the next big thing brock lesnar it's an incredibly safe answer from pritchard here and it's probably the easiest answer you could give but that's all we've got to work with the confidential program aired on june 15 2002 and the story of stone cold walking out had gained a ton of media attention two days later vince mcmahon decided to discuss steve austin's departure on raw mcmahon confirmed that steve austin is definitely gone but he hopes that one day he will return vince said that austin has a lot of explaining to do and a lot of apologizing to do if he ever does come back mcmahon talks about how austin had walked out after wrestlemania 18 yet the company brought him back in and vince says austin knows an apology to the boys in the locker room he owes an apology to the company and he owes an apology to each and every fan in attendance the whole story about jim ross's phone call to austin was laid out for all the fans to hear and vince mcmahon says the company will continue on without stone cold steve austin mcmahon wraps it up by thanking steve on behalf of the company and the fans and vince has one final beer in honor of stone cold steve austin to make up for the lack of an advertised superstar like steve austin smackdown superstar the rock made an appearance at the end of raw and the rock cut a promo that was pretty much devised to take shots at stone cold steve austin after throwing a can of beer out of the ring the rock said that every time he walks into a locker room he sees a lot of fire in the eyes of wwe superstars because each and every one of them wants to be there they want to be with the company wwe superstars do what they do because they love performing and if there's anybody in the back who doesn't want to be with wwe then they should leave the rock says he wants to move on so the great one announces that he's going to return to the wwe early his next match will be at the king of the ring pay-per-view again i can only assume this was done because austin was now not going to appear on the show rocky says he has the wwe in his blood and rock says that while austin can take his ball and go home the rock considers the wwe his home basically this was an all-out burial of steve austin whether you think it was necessary or not is completely up to you austin says that if he could go back and change everything he would but at the same time stonecold felt that walking out was the only thing he could do to keep his sanity it seems like the wheels were continuing to fall off however mere days after stone cold returned home stories began appearing in the media in regards to some domestic problems between austin and his wife deborah you can look this all up yourself it's not really my place to talk about it but it does highlight how things were rapidly going downhill austin filed for a divorce from deborah on july 22nd 2002 and the divorce was finalized the next year apart from these stories in the media austin tried to keep a low profile for the remainder of 2002 and he didn't make any public appearances at all although jim ross would still keep in contact austin received a postcard from jim and the postcard said that if stone cold ever wanted to talk then jim ross would be prepared to listen austin said he called ross the two men spoke for hours and ross suggested putting austin and mcmahon in the same room so they could sort out their differences austin agreed and stone cold met with vince mcmahon privately to discuss austin's future there was never no chance of vince mcmahon not bringing austin back his popularity and drawing power overshadowed the fact that austin had walked out and an agreement was made to bring stone cold steve austin back to the wwe austin apologized to vince and a storyline developed in early 2003 that would see eric bischoff trying to find steve austin and sign him to her contract austin returned at the no way out 2003 pay-per-view where he had a match with bischoff and stonecold would then go on the feud with the rock austin would have his final match just one month after no way out when he lost to the rock at wrestlemania 19. and that's the story of steve austin's walkout in 2002 quite a dark period in the career of stone cold that was filled with regrets i'll end this video with a quote from steve austin that wraps up his feelings regarding the whole walkout hindsight being 2020 yeah i should have gone to the arena i should have talked events and said i'm not doing it but stayed with the company i lost a lot of money they lost a lot of momentum and the crowd lost a part of the product that they loved to watch [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't trust anybody and that's the bottom line i ain't motivated by the dollar signs do it for the love that's how i went viral off a lot of props now i'm done announcing my arrival cause the title mine i claim the belt and i'm changing the hole up made a name without the gang i'm leaving them all that's the old works don't matter who you bring cause i'm holding up my middle finger to hold

Channel: Wrestling Bios

Views: 685,009

Keywords: Wrestling lists, wwe lists, wrestling bios, stone cold steve austin 2002, steve austin 2002, austin quits wwf, steve austin walks out, steve austin vs scott hall, wwf 2002, wwe 2002, austin took his ball and went home, steve austin vs ric flair, wwf nwo, stone cold steve austin vs hulk hogan, austin quits wwe, wrestling facts, wwe stories, wwe facts, wrestler documentary, wrestling documentary, wwe documentary, steve austin documentary, stone cold steve austin

Id: v65w8hO5D_0

Length: 25min 23sec (1523 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020